In this Instructable we'll show you hot to make a GSM Access Control System for your hackerspace/garage/house/bedroom/dormroom/laboratory just like the one we built for eLab Hackerspace. We only used some scavenged parts but they can be replaced with similar parts with minor changes.
We also added a switch that would be triggered by the rotating gear when the lever was in the "open" position. After the mechanics of the system were done, we designed a simple board with a PIC16F88 microcontroller (more details about the board on step 5) based on the PIC16F88 prototyping board that we had previously designed for us to use at the hackerspace. We also did some simple programming of the PIC16F88 just to test the door opening mechanism: when a button was clicked, it would turn on the motor until the "open" switch was activated, then wait three seconds, and then turn on the motor again until the "open" switch stopped being activated, which meant that the lever was in the "closed" position. However, we ran into our first problem: the motor was so noisy that it was generating voltage spikes in the pin that was supposed to read the switch. We tried putting the noise filtering capacitors in the motor's pins, tried using a more stable power supply, but we weren't being able to filter it using hardware. After some time trying to fix the problem using hardware, we remembered a simple and clever way that worked like a charm: implement a software mechanism that would ignore isolated voltage spikes. We simply implemented a counter and defined a counting threshold: the PIC16F88 would count every time that the pin read a logic 1 but would only consider that button as being activated when the threshold value was reached, The counter would increase its value with the voltage spikes, but when the switch was actually activated, the counting value would increase extremely fast, reaching the threshold value. Having the opening/closing mechanism ready, it was time to start assembling all the control system and work on the GSM part of the system.
In order to keep everything organized we mounted all the parts in an MDF Board on the wall next to the door. We previously painted the MDF board black and screwed it to the wall. To make it look better, we also painted the ATX power supply black with spray paint.
In case you didn't know, some old cell phones such as the ones from Siemens, Nokia and Samsung are really good for electronics projects. Some of them can be used as GSM modems, having a simple serial connection and a communication protocol based on AT Commands. The amount of supported commands may vary, depending on the model of the phone and on the manufacturer. The Siemens C55 turns out to be one of the best phones for electronics projects since its GSM modem supports a wide list of AT commands.
By the way, if you try to send AT commands to a phone, it may happen that it won't echo the characters that you send it. Some phones come with the echo disabled. It may happen that you type "AT" followed by "Enter" and only receive the response "OK". To activate the echo, you can send the command "ATE1". To deactivate it, you can send the command "ATE0". If you wish to know more about AT commands for the Siemens C55, see this document.
The next step was to establish a serial connection between the PIC16F88 board, the Siemens C55 Cell Phone and an old computer via RS232 connection. Once again we faced some problems: the PIC16F88 was supplied with 5V and was working with TTL levels, the Siemens C55 phone required LVTTL levels and was not tolerant to TTL (it would turn itself off), and we still had to establish a connection with the computer using RS232 levels. Moreover, we had do create a UART communication with one Master (the PIC16F88 board) and two slaves (the Siemens C55 and the computer) which is something that requires a little trick to work. This trick consists in placing a diode in the Tx line of every Slave device, with the Cathode facing the device. Why is this necessary? Well, according to the UART specifications, when a device is in the inactive state (idle), its Tx pin must be high. When communication occurs, it is the Slave's responsibility to pull the Tx line down to sink the Master Rx channel's current. Using the diodes, when in idle state, every Slave is able to keep his own Tx high irrespective of what the master's Rx channel is at. A single Slave can transmit by pulling his Tx line down without affecting the Tx on other slaves. Having the Master/Slave trick done, it was time to do some level conversion. To convert the 5V TTL signal from the Tx pin of the PIC16F88 to an LVTTL level, a voltage divider using two resistors was used. To convert the 3.3V LVTTL signal from the Siemens C55 Tx pin to 5V TTL, an MCP6002 Op Amp was used as a comparator, pulling the voltage level to 5V every time the Tx signal from the cell phone passed the 2.5V threshold value, defined by a voltage divider built with two resistors. The conversion between TTL and RS232 levels was a lot simpler and was done by using a single MAX232 chip. Below you can see the PCB and the schematics where you can identify all the parts that have just been described.
The board was designed in Kicad. You can download the PCB files by clicking here.
This board is supposed to by powered with 12V and contains a 5V linear regulator do power the PIC microcontroller. It also contains a channel N MOSFET acting as a switch controlled by the MCU to turn the motor on and off. Besides that, it also contains all the necessary connectors for power, motor, motor switch and UART communications. The board was designed in Eagle and you can download the Eagle project files here. The firmware for the PIC16F88 is discussed and can be downloaded in the next section. In the pictures you can see the schematic and PCB of the board.
- ELAB+P=<PASSWORD> - Insert admin password to enter admin mode. The <PASSWORD> field is to be replace with the real password, hard coded in the PIC's firmware. In case the password is accepted, the PIC emits a "AUTH OK" response. Otherwise, it replies with "NO AUTH".
- ELAB+V - View the full list of numbers stored in the internal EEPROM. This command only works after the admin mode has been activated. Otherwise you'll receive a message saying "NO AUTH". If the command is accepted you should be replied with an "OK". In case the command is not correctly entered the PIC will reply with "ERROR".
The default password is located in the password.txt file contained in the "PIC16F88 Control Board Firmware.zip" file. You can change it in the source code and recompile it if you want to change it.
To use the AT command interface, the system administrator just has to open the serial connection (9600bps baud rate) with the PIC microcontroller and send the commands above to perform add, delete and view operations. When all operations are made, the Reset button on the PIC board should be pressed to reactivate the security lock in the PIC microcontroller. A lot of improvement can still be done in the code, such as adding a command to reactivate the security lock or adding a command to open the door, among other possibilities.
Whenever the PIC receives a CLIP message from the cell phone, it checks if the received number exists in its internal EEPROM. In case it exists, it sends a "A:<9_DIGIT_NUMBER>" to the computer. In case the number does not exist, it sends a "R:<9_DIGIT_NUMBER>" to the computer.
Regarding the door opening mechanism, once a message is received with a valid number, the motor is activated until a switch located near the motor is activated T times (to ignore the voltage spikes caused by motor noise). Then it waits 3 seconds and activates the motor again until the switch is released.
You can download the firmware by clicking here.
We'll now describe what the Python source code does, in a general way. Whenever the Python application receives a "A:<9_DIGIT_NUMBER>" message from the PIC16F88, it fetches the data from the Google spreadsheet containing the eLab Hackerspace members information and checks which user has the received phone number. After checking which user has the received phone number, it plays the corresponding entrance music and it sends the entry information to the eLab Hackerspace entrance Log spreadsheet. In case it receives a "R:<9_DIGIT_NUMBER>", it sounds the alarm sound and sends the rejected entry information to the eLab Hackerspace entrance Log spreadsheet. Below you can see the code for the Python application. If you try to use it don't forget to change the email, password, spreadsheet key and title of the members list spreadsheet. The spreadsheet key can be found on the url of the spreadsheet after the string "key=".
To publish the daily Entrance log in a webpage you just have to open the spreadsheet on Google Drive, click on File -> Publish to Web and then choose which sheet you want to publish and click the button to start publishing. Then, in the bottom of the popup window choose HTML to embed in a webpage and copy the HTML code and paste it in your webpage.
Wow you replied. Thanks!!! On this instructables you gave a detailed explanation on using Siemens C55 and and old computer. How about their alternatives? Can a raspberry pi connect to Google Spreadsheet? Sorry I'm a total noob.
looks like a 486 system to me . but i could be rong tho.
have u tried double sided thermal tape. or copper plumber expoxy. it does have some conductivity as well.
OK. so this keeps track of how many people go in and out?
Amazing! good work! very smart! (voces são todos brasileiros por acaso;;) abc bro!!
since the software is based in linux can it also work in raspberry pi?


text:
SCALING UP OF THE USE OF DIGITAL LEARNING SOLUTIONS IN AFRICA DURING AND POST COVID-19
Nordic Edtech Group LIG signs MoU with the African Union
Finland, Helsinki: Learning Intelligence Group today confirms the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding with the African Union. This milestone is a significant move for LIG and Africa Union to strengthen education systems across Africa and facilitate knowledge exchange and cross-national learning. The main cooperation agenda will focus on scaling up the introduction and adoption of LIG's portfolio companies, Claned Group and Grapho Group, pedagogically validated digital learning tools, especially in early childhood literacy, professional teacher training, capacity building and entrepreneurship in Africa.
Professor Sarah Anyang Agbor, AU Commissioner for Human Resources, Science and Technology stated:
"This MoU with LIG aligns with the AU's efforts to scale up quality education services, bridge the digital connectivity/divide, increase access to the internet, technology, knowledge acquisition & technical skills development to benefit learners everywhere whether in the cities or rural areas"
According to Mervi Palander, CEO and Founder of Grapho Group Ltd:
"This MoU gives us a unique opportunity to join forces with the African Union in our combined efforts to make high-quality education resources available and accessible to kids in Africa. By partnering with the African Union, it is our wish that kids in Africa, like their counterparts in other continents, will benefit from our personalised, engaging, and evidence-based apps to support their literacy learning in national or local languages at home or in school".
This news comes in the wake of many initiatives and accomplishments of the LIG's companies Claned Group and Grapho Group in Africa, including:
Claned online learning to ensure continued training of 2000 vocational education learners, delivering 97% course completion during the COVID-19 Lockdowns.
Claned and Graphogame delivering research-validated teacher education in 21st Century skills in Kenya in 2019
Providing best in class online learning capabilities to approximately 20,000 students in Uganda, Zambia and Mozambique from 2019 to date.
Ongoing discussion with local governments and NGOs to roll out GraphoGame as a national literacy resource.
Graphogame nationwide deployment in Brazil, by the President of Brazil Jair Bolsonaro
Vesa Perala, Founder and CEO Claned Group commented:
"We are super excited to start working with the African Union! We are looking forward to delivering high-impact online learning experiences across the entire continent, from teachers to young, starting entrepreneurs. Progressive online learning with a sound pedagogy works well from Egypt to South Africa – our goal is to make it accessible as widely as possible in close cooperation with African Union"
Together with Claned and ELE, in 2019, GraphoGroup took part in the teacher training intervention by training the teachers of Muskut Primary School in the use of GraphoGame in English classes. This was done to demonstrate to teachers an example method for utilising modern learning tools and ICT in learning processes and in improving student engagement in English classes. Adding the English synthetic phonics earlygrade literacy game to the school's Lenovo laptops to aid teachers in exploiting the content learned in the ELE/Claned intervention and make tangible the utilisation of ICT in a classroom environment post-intervention and deepen teacher engagement.
To learn more about the milestones, click here for Claned and here for Graphogame.
Claned is the most awarded online learning platform from Finland. Delivering engaging and effective online learning to more than 250 customers in over 40 countries, including UNEP, Santander Universities, Cavendish University Uganda/Zambia, and CAP Youth Empowerment Institute Kenya. Claned provides an easy to use and easy to set up learning platform, that supports learning and prevents dropout with a 97% completion rate, and a 97.1 positive learning experience.
GraphoGame is an academically researched learning game for teaching children early literacy skills in English, French, Portuguese, Swahili, Afrikaans, Cinyanja and many more languages. With 250 million illiterate children globally and up to 10% of all people having dyslexia, teachers and schools struggle to provide the 1-on-1 support these children need. GraphoGame produces analytics of the child's decoding & phonics practice, allowing teachers and parents to react to bottlenecks in their learning quickly. GraphoGame is evidence-based, with all content developed, studied and validated by experts in universities worldwide, such as the University of Cambridge, the University of Aix-Marseille and the University of Zambia. There are over 300 research publications, including 18 PhD thesis done internationally on GraphoGame in different contexts, including Zambia, Tanzania, and Kenya.
Learning Intelligence Group (LIG) is a leading education technology pioneer in the Nordic region. We support our portfolio EdTech businesses in penetrating the global education market.
The African Union (AU) is a continental body consisting of the 55 member states that make up the countries of the African Continent. It was officially launched in 2002 as a successor to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU, 1963-1999).
Caseley Olabode Stephens
Policy Officer-Education stephensc@africa-union.org
Vesa Perala, Founder & CEO
Claned Group Oy Ab vesa@claned.com +358 40 586 0863
Mervi Palander, Founder & CEO Graphogame Group Ltd
mervi@graphogame.com, +358 40 586 0863
Wilma service by Visma donates the GraphoGame early literacy app to all children in Finland
NEWS I Wilma, Visma's ubiquitous online school administration service, is providing the GraphoGame early literacy skills app in English for all children of Finland. This donation is in support of Finland's new curriculum, which now begins foreign language studies in the first grade. The learning app will be available for free download in English. It can be used with mobile devices, tablets or desktop computers, and is an important complement to regular school work.
Jukka Holm, CEO of Visma Enterprise Ltd behind the Wilma-service for schools in Finland says:
"We believe the ability to read and converse in different languages will be one of the critical skills in the future working life. That is why we want to give the use of this early literacy game as our Christmas gift to all children now starting to learn English as their first foreign language according to our new curriculum in Finland."
"We are so happy to discover GraphoGame and are confident its academically researched methodology will support this new curriculum, especially in times of remote learning."
Wilma service is already used by 98% of Finnish elementary schools and will be used as a channel to inform schools about GraphoGame. Besides elementary schools, Wilma is used in secondary schools and organisations and is now being expanded to early childhood education.
Supporting early literacy skills in remote learning
Grapho Group works with a diverse set of impact-oriented organisations to enable the paid distribution of GraphoGame as a free national literacy resource in various countries worldwide. Customers also include school suppliers, schools, speech therapy clinics and parents.
Mervi Palander, CEO and founder of Grapho Group Ltd says:
"We are extremely happy about this joint impact project with Visma Enterprise. With the GraphoGame app, we can provide safe and engaging complementary literacy training to support remote learning in Finland right now. It is important to us that, during the COVID-19 pandemic, we make our contribution to ensuring the learning of critical life skills."
Graphogame has been proven to complement early literacy education and offers individualized and adaptive learning to children with different needs.
Mervi Palander continues:
"We like to make ourselves available to everyone, even though we put kids first. So far, we have exceeded over 1,5 million downloads across Android, iOS and Microsoft app stores, and the numbers keep increasing around the world. It is great to see so many countries making literacy skills a national priority."
Advancing literacy skills worldwide
GraphoGame was initially created by the University of Jyväskylä and Niilo Mäki Institute from Finland as a result of decades of longitudinal research and development. It is a literacy software and e-learning methodology that has been used as part of the Finnish school curriculum for over a decade to support literacy instruction.
Since then, GraphoGame has been contextualised into multiple languages including English (British & American), Brazilian Portuguese, French, Spanish, Chinese Pinyin & Zhuyin, Dutch, Norwegian, Swedish, Bahasa Indonesia, CiNyanja and Swahili by top universities around the world. These include the University of Cambridge Centre for Neuroscience in Education, Haskins Laboratories (Yale) and Aix-Marseille University for the British English, American English and French language versions of GraphoGame, respectively.
Wilma service's paid distribution of GraphoGame for English adds Finland to the growing list of countries where GraphoGame is offered as a free national literacy resource. The list includes Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Chile, France, Norway, Panama and the USA, where GraphoGame is being used as a literacy intervention for 4 to 9-year-old children and struggling English readers.
Berit Virtanen-Thewlis, PR & Communications, Grapho Group Ltd, +358 40 511 4460, berit@ixc.fi
Sanna Burton, Communications Director, Visma Finland, +358 50 322 5222, sanna.burton@visma.com
About Wilma service
Wilma is a safe web service for schools where all kinds of information can be shared in real-time. The information is contained, e.g. personal data, schedules, attendance and messages. Students, guardians, teachers and the administration are all active users of Wilma, and every school can customize what information to show and when. https://www.visma.fi/wilma
About Visma companies
Visma makes businesses more efficient, through offerings of software, commerce solutions, retail IT-solutions, and IT-related projects and consulting. Visma simplifies and digitalizes core business processes within the private and public sector. 1 000 000 customers in Northern Europe utilize Visma's products and services. The group has over 11 00 employees and its net revenue amounted to EUR 1.5 billion in 2019. In Finland, Visma has ten subsidiary companies, employs ca. 1400 people and serves over 100 000 customers. Visit www.visma.fi/enterprise to learn more.
About GraphoGame
GraphoGame is an academically researched learning game for teaching children early literacy skills in English, French and many more languages. With 250 million illiterate children in the world and up to 10% of all people having dyslexia, teachers and schools struggle to provide the 1-on-1 support these children need. GraphoGame produces analytics of the child's decoding & phonics practice, allowing teachers to quickly react to bottlenecks in their learning. GraphoGame is evidence-based, meaning all content has been developed, studied and validated by experts in universities around the world, such as the University of Cambridge and the University of Aix-Marseille. Find out more at www.graphogame.com
Presidente Bolsonaro de Brasil anunció el lanzamiento nacional de GraphoGame
NEWS I Grapho Group Ltd de Finlandia ha lanzado la versión en portugués brasileño de su intervención de aprendizaje de alfabetización temprana como una aplicación gratuita en todo Brasil. Este lanzamiento público está dirigido y respaldado por el presidente de Brasil, Jair Bolsonaro, cuyo anuncio de la iniciativa de alfabetización se transmitió en televisión, redes sociales y varias estaciones de radio en todo el país. El acuerdo comercial firmado entre Grapho Group Ltd y el Ministerio de Educación de Brasil permite la distribución de GraphoGame a más de 11 millones de niños que hablan portugués brasileño.
GraphoGame Brasil es parte del programa Tempo de Aprender (Tiempo para aprender) dirigido por el Ministerio de Educación de Brasil para proporcionar a los niños, las familias y los maestros recursos escolares y de alfabetización eficaces.
El socio académico local de Grapho Group, el Instituto do Cérebro de la PUCRS, también realizará un estudio de eficacia sobre el juego del portugués brasileño.
La distribución paga de GraphoGame en Brasil se suma a la creciente lista de países donde GraphoGame se ofrece como un recurso nacional gratuito de alfabetización. Estos incluyen a los EE.UU., Argentina, Colombia, Panamá y Chile, patrocinados por Haskins Global Literacy Hub, el Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo y CEDETi UC, respectivamente. La aplicación también está disponible de forma gratuita en Francia y Noruega.
Jouko Leinonen, el embajador de Finlandia en Brasil, comentó después del anuncio de la campaña de alfabetización en Brasil:
"Estamos muy orgullosos de ver una innovación de investigación finlandesa, GraphoGame, como la tecnología impulsora para llevar esta importante iniciativa de alfabetización a nivel nacional en Brasil. El Ministerio de Educación de Brasil ha mostrado una determinación notable para abordar este problema actual, ya que afecta a toda la nación ahora y en el futuro si no se le presta atención ".
Jaana Palojärvi, directora de Relaciones Internacionales del Ministerio de Educación de Finlandia, dijo:
"Este es otro logro notable de Grapho Group. Su innovadora aplicación de habilidades de alfabetización está ganando atención rápidamente y tiene un impacto en un problema globalmente crítico: el analfabetismo. También es un buen ejemplo de cómo hacer que una asociación público-privada funcione para combatir el analfabetismo a escala nacional ".
Fomento de la alfabetización en todo el mundo
GraphoGame fue creado inicialmente por la Universidad de Jyväskylä y el Instituto Niilo Mäki de Finlandia como resultado de décadas de investigación y desarrollo longitudinal. Es un software de alfabetización y una metodología de aprendizaje electrónico que se ha utilizado como parte del plan de estudios de las escuelas finlandesas durante más de una década.
Desde entonces, GraphoGame ha sido contextualizado en varios idiomas, incluidos inglés (británico y americano), portugués europeo, francés, español, chino pinyin y zhuyin, holandés, noruego, sueco, bahasa indonesio, cinyanja y swahili por las mejores universidades de todo el mundo. Estas universidades incluyen el Centro de Neurociencia en Educación de la Universidad de Cambridge, los Laboratorios Haskins (Yale), la Universidad Aix-Marseille y el Instituto do Cérebro (PUCRS) para las versiones en inglés británico, inglés americano, francés y portugués brasileño de GraphoGame, respectivamente.
El juego de la versión en portugués brasileño ha sido investigado y desarrollado en colaboración con la Universidad de Jyväskylä en Finlandia y con socios universitarios en el Brain Institute of Rio Grande Do Sul PUCRS en Brasil.
El profesor Augusto Buchweitz de la PUCRS dijo sobre el trabajo de desarrollo:
"El desarrollo y lanzamiento a nivel nacional de la versión en portugués brasileño de Graphogame es parte de los esfuerzos de Grapholearn y Grapho Group Ltd en colaboración con Haskins Global Literacy Hub. El centro es una red mundial de científicos de la lectura que, entre otros objetivos, tiene como objetivo aumentar la accesibilidad a la tecnología educativa eficaz (EdTech) en los países en desarrollo ".
Buchweitz continuó:
"Se ha demostrado que Graphogame complementa la educación de alfabetización temprana y ofrece un aprendizaje individualizado y adaptativo a niños con diferentes necesidades. Los esfuerzos surgieron como respuesta a la brecha de aprendizaje en la alfabetización temprana entre niños pobres y ricos, que solo está aumentando como resultado de COVID19. A lo largo de 2021, implementaremos estudios con GraphoGame Brasil en ciudades de Brasil para evaluar su efectividad y mejorar su contenido ".
Ulla Richardson, profesora del Centro de Estudios del Lenguaje Aplicado de la Universidad de Jyväskylä, comentó:
"Estamos emocionados de saber del exitoso lanzamiento de la última versión de idioma de GraphoGame en Brasil. Ha sido necesario años de arduo trabajo y dedicación por parte de tantas personas para implementar la tecnología para abordar el problema mundial del analfabetismo. No podríamos estar más felices de ver a otro país que coloca este tema en el centro de su interés nacional inmediato ".
Un nuevo plan de estudios para apoyar las habilidades de alfabetización en Brasil
Grapho Group trabaja con un conjunto diverso de organizaciones, como gobiernos, ONG, fundaciones, organizaciones benéficas para permitir la distribución paga de GraphoGame como un recurso nacional gratuito de alfabetización en varios países del mundo. Los clientes también incluyen proveedores escolares, escuelas, clínicas de terapia del habla y padres.
Mervi Palander, CEO y fundador de Grapho Group Ltd declaró después del lanzamiento:
"El desarrollo de la versión en portugués brasileño de GraphoGame y su distribución paga no habría sido posible sin nuestra estrecha colaboración con la PUCRS y el Ministerio de Educación de Brasil. Ha sido un gran placer trabajar con todos en este proyecto y estamos agradecidos de verlo avanzar con el apoyo del presidente Bolsonaro ".
Mervi Palander continuó:
"Hasta ahora, ya hemos superado más de 1,4 millones de descargas en las tiendas de aplicaciones de Android, iOS y Microsoft, y las cifras siguen aumentando en todo el mundo. Es genial ver a tantos países haciendo de las habilidades de alfabetización una prioridad nacional ".
Contacto con los medios:
Berit Virtanen-Thewlis, Relaciones con la prensa de GraphoGame, +358 40511 4460, berit@ixc.fi
Sobre GraphoGame
GraphoGame es un juego de aprendizaje de investigación académica para enseñar a los niños habilidades de alfabetización temprana en inglés, francés y muchos más idiomas. Con 250 millones de niños analfabetos en el mundo y hasta un 10% de todas las personas con dislexia, los maestros y las escuelas luchan por brindar el apoyo individualizado que estos niños necesitan. GraphoGame produce análisis de la práctica de decodificación y fonética del niño, lo que permite a los maestros reaccionar rápidamente a los obstáculos en su aprendizaje. GraphoGame se basa en pruebas, lo que significa que todo el contenido ha sido desarrollado, estudiado y validado por expertos en universidades de todo el mundo, como la Universidad de Cambridge y la Universidad de Aix-Marsella.
President Bolsonaro announces the national launch of GraphoGame literacy app in Brazil
NEWS I Grapho Group Ltd from Finland has launched the Brazilian Portuguese language version of their early literacy learning intervention as a free app across Brazil. This public launch is led and endorsed by Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro whose announcement for the literacy initiative was broadcasted on TV, social media and several radio stations nationwide. The signed commercial agreement between Grapho Group Ltd and the Ministry of Education in Brazil enables the distribution of GraphoGame to over 11 million children speaking Brazilian Portuguese.
GraphoGame Brazil is part of the Tempo de Aprender (Time to Learn) programme run by the Brazilian Ministry of Education to provide children, families and teachers with effective school and literacy resources.
Grapho Group's local academic partner, Instituto do Cérebro at PUCRS, will also be running an efficacy study on the Brazilian Portuguese game.
The paid distribution of GraphoGame in Brazil adds to the growing list of countries where GraphoGame is offered as a national literacy resource. These include the USA, Argentina, Colombia, Panama and Chile sponsored by Haskins Global Literacy Hub, Inter-American Development Bank and CEDETi UC, respectively. The app is also available through paid distribution in France and Norway.
Jouko Leinonen, the Ambassador of Finland in Brazil, commented after the announcement of the literacy skills campaign in Brazil:
"We are so proud to see a Finnish research innovation, GraphoGame, to be the driving technology to take this important literacy skills initiative nationwide in Brazil. The Ministry of Education in Brazil has shown a remarkable determination to tackle this current issue as it impacts the whole nation now and in the future if not paid attention to."
Jaana Palojärvi, Director for International Relations for Ministry of Education in Finland, said:
"This is yet another remarkable achievement by Grapho Group. Their innovative literacy skills app is quickly gaining attention and making an impact on a globally critical issue - illiteracy. It is also a good example of how to make a Public-private partnership work to tackle illiteracy on a national scale."
GraphoGame was initially created by the University of Jyväskylä and Niilo Mäki Institute from Finland as a result of decades of longitudinal research and development. It is a literacy software and e-learning methodology that has been used as part of the Finnish school curriculum for over a decade.
Since then, GraphoGame has been contextualised into multiple languages including English (British & American), European Portuguese, French, Spanish, Chinese Pinyin & Zhuyin, Dutch, Norwegian, Swedish, Bahasa Indonesia, Cinyanja and Swahili by top universities around the world. These Universities include the University of Cambridge Centre for Neuroscience in Education, Haskins Laboratories (Yale), Aix-Marseille University and Instituto do Cérebro (PUCRS) for the British English, American English French and Brazilian Portuguese language versions of GraphoGame, respectively.
The Brazilian Portuguese language version game has been researched and developed in collaboration with the University of Jyväskylä in Finland and with university partners at Brain Institute of Rio Grande Do Sul PUCRS in Brazil.
Professor Augusto Buchweitz at PUCRS said on the development work:
"The development and nationwide release of the Brazilian Portuguese version of Graphogame is part of the efforts of Grapholearn and Grapho Group Oy in collaboration with the Haskins Global Literacy Hub. The hub is a worldwide network of scientists of reading that, among other goals, aims to increase the accessibility to effective Education Technology (EdTech) in developing countries."
Buchweitz continued:
"Graphogame has been proven to complement early literacy education and offers individualized and adaptive learning to children with different needs. The efforts came as a response to the learning gap in early literacy between poor and rich children, which is only increasing as a result of COVID19. Throughout 2021, we will be implementing studies with GraphoGame Brasil in cities across Brazil to evaluate its effectiveness and improve its content."
Ulla Richardson, Professor in Center of Applied Language Studies, University of Jyväskylä, commented:
"We are excited to hear of the successful launch of the latest language version of GraphoGame in Brazil. It has taken years of hard work and dedication by so many people to put the technology in place to tackle the global issue of illiteracy. We could not be happier to see yet another country putting this issue in the core of their immediate national interest."
A new curriculum to support literacy skills in Brazil
Grapho Group works with a diverse set of organisations such as governments, NGOs, foundations, charities to enable the paid distribution of GraphoGame as a free national literacy resource in various countries worldwide. Customers also include school suppliers, schools, speech therapy clinics and parents.
Mervi Palander, CEO and founder of Grapho Group Ltd stated after the launch:
"The development of the Brazilian Portuguese language version of GraphoGame and its paid distribution would not have been possible without our close collaboration with PUCRS and the Ministry of Education in Brazil. It has been an absolute pleasure to work with everybody in this project and we are grateful to see it go forward with President Bolsonaro's support."
Palander continued:
"So far, we have already exceeded over 1,4 million downloads across Android, iOS and Microsoft app stores, and the numbers keep increasing around the world. It is great to see so many countries making literacy skills a national priority."
Watch the announcement from President Bolsonaro's livestream (39:00 - 49:00)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UqEQfL6il8M
Berit Virtanen-Thewlis, GraphoGame Press relations, +358 40 511 4460, berit@ixc.fi
Celebrating International Literacy Day 2020
Literacy development is vital for children's overall development. So, it is not surprising that September 8th every year has been set aside as the day the world celebrates International Literacy Day (ILD). On ILD, we are reminded of the importance of literacy as a matter of dignity and human rights while raising awareness and concerns for global literacy problems and advancing the literacy agenda towards a more literate and sustainable society.
The idea for an ILD was birthed at the "World Conference of Ministers of Education on the Eradication of Illiteracy" held in Tehran, Iran in 1965. In 1966, UNESCO declared September 8 as International Literacy Day 'to remind the international community of the importance of literacy for individuals, communities and societies, and the need for intensified efforts towards more literate societies'. Since 1967, ILD has been celebrated on annually on September 8th.
Literacy teaching and learning in the COVID-19 crisis and beyond
The theme for the 2020 International Literacy Day is 'Literacy teaching and learning in the COVID-19 crisis and beyond'. The theme highlights the role of educators and changing pedagogies and draws attention to literacy learning as a lifelong learning activity. This year, ILD focuses on youth and adults. UNESCO statistics indicates that at least 773 million adults worldwide today lack basic literacy skills and 617 million children and adolescents are not achieving minimum proficiency levels in reading and mathematics.
The COVID-19 pandemic that led to school closures affected about 35% of learners learning to read, causing a situation that has been described to as the COVID-slide. Situating the theme of this year's ILD within the context of the COVID-19 crisis and beyond is a call for stakeholders to reflect on the impact of the crisis on youth and adult literacy educators and teaching and learning, on lessons learnt and on ways to effectively position youth and adult literacy learning in global and national responses.
Importance of early childhood literacy
Although the focus on this year's ILD is on youth and adults, it is important to draw attention to the importance of early childhood literacy learning. Effective early childhood literacy learning sets a strong foundation and is crucial for better literacy outcomes and long-term success as adults. In fact, when we invest in helping children to learn to read, we offer them a priceless gift of enabling them to read to learn as they grow older, which helps them flourish emotionally, academically, socially and in many other spheres of life.
GraphoGame: an effective early childhood learning resource
One of the ways of supporting early childhood literacy learning that has the potential to yield significant returns is to invest in evidence-based learning games such as GraphoGame.
GraphoGame is an academically researched literacy learning app, game and methodology for teaching kindergarten and primary school children early grade literacy in multiple languages including English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Chinese. GraphoGame has been developed by linguists, neuropsychologists and speech pathologists to help children to improve their reading and spelling, while simultaneously supporting struggling and dyslexic readers to boost their reading confidence.
Grapho Group Oy is an educational game company that develops scientifically validated literacy tools for home and school and is the developer of GraphoGame, the early literacy app made and validated by scientists. GraphoGame was developed as a part of a research initiative in 2011 and Grapho Group Oy was founded in Helsinki in 2017 and employs five persons and manages a partner network of neuropsychology, linguistics and pedagogy researchers in universities around the world. Our customers are NGOs, governments, school suppliers, schools, speech therapy clinics and parents.
Grapho Group Oy has partnered with a number of institutions to make different language versions of GraphoGame a free app for end-users in a number of countries. For example, we have partnership with Haskins Global Literacy Hub to make the American English version of GraphoGame free of charge for all US residents. Through partnership with Aix-Marseille University, the French version of the game is now free in France. We have equally partnered with the Inter-American Development Bank to make the Spanish language version of the game a free app for residents of Argentina, Columbia, Panama. We are currently finalising negotiations with the government of Brazil to make the game a free app in Brazil. A number of negotiations are still ongoing with different institutions in Asia and Africa to enable residents have free access to the game.
Check out GraphoGame today to find out ways to support early childhood literacy for your kid, school, community, or even an entire country.
Have a memorable International Literacy Day celebration!
Elizabeth Agbor Eta (PhD)
Project Director at GraphoGame.
Literacy Development and Support for Bilingual Children
In the European Union, 56% of people, more than half, speak at least two languages. There are many households where one or both parents speak a different native language.
Is it a good idea to raise your kids to be bilingual? Should you put them in bilingual education? How can you support your kids as they forge ahead learning two languages at the same time? These are some of the questions parents struggle with which are addressed in this blog post.
Early linguists originally thought that learning two languages at the same time led to slight developmental delays. Unfortunately, this belief has stuck around though now researchers know that bilingualism helps to develop skills that can give children an advantage in the classroom.
Knowing which language to speak requires inhibition and task switching, which contributes to developing better attention. Figuring out with whom to use which language also develops empathy.
There is some evidence that active bilingualism makes structural changes in the brain that can help stave off Alzheimer's and dementia in the elderly. Moreover, bilinguals who have Alzheimer's continue to function at a higher rate than monolinguals, even when they have more brain damage.
What Is Bilingual Literacy?
So, learning a second language is a great idea — how about learning to read both? Another common misunderstanding is that speaking two languages makes learning to read difficult.
Again, research has found that this is not true. From being exposed to multiple languages from a young age, children actually have an easier time understanding word structure. This, in turn, heightens phonological awareness — an important pre-literacy skill.
Reading advantages of being bilingual vary depending on the two languages that the child speaks. For example, if a child speaks related languages like Spanish and Italian, they will have an easier time learning to read in both than in unrelated languages like English and Japanese.
How Parents Can Help
Putting kids in a bilingual classroom is perhaps one of the best ways parents can help their kids develop bilingual literacy. However, this option won't be available to all parents.
If one or both parents speak a different language than that of your child's school, focus on speaking this language in the home. They're getting plenty of instruction in the school's language so they need exposure to your language at home.
Some parents get discouraged when children mix up languages and stop teaching them, fearing they will stunt their education. Don't do this! As children practice they will separate the two languages and surge forward in learning to speak, read, and write both.
Spend time reading to your kids in your target language. This is not only an excellent activity for helping them to develop language and reading skills, but also a great way for you to spend quality time with them. Kids will remember reading together fondly, a positive association that will help them want to learn to read.
Whatever your situation, reading games can help support kids' development and help them learn to read faster. For example, GraphoGame is an app backed by research that can help children learn to read in a variety of languages including English, French, Chinese, Dutch and many others. It combines Finnish educational expertise (one of the best educational rubrics in the world) with top-level research in neuroscience.
Want to learn more? Don't hesitate to check it out! Your kids will love learning to read with GraphoGame's unique learning software.
Photo credit: Gerd Altmann from Pixabay
How to support children and develop emergent literacy skills at home
Who educates your children? The school? Their teachers? It's easy to put it off and say this isn't on us. We feed them, clothe them, raise them, learning is the school's problem.
But that isn't how it works. Research shows that learning ability begins at birth. And a lot depends on the activities children do with their parents, at home, before the age of five. So, a big part of it is on you.
What is emergent literacy?
It refers to the informal early learning stages of children. Or the part where your child is learning how to read and write. And the role you play in these early years affects how they learn and develop their literacy skills. A lot of the literature you read on the subject can sound vague.
However, if you want an exact image of what emergent literacy is, well, you already have it. It's when you read a picture book to a toddler, and they point at the pictures. Or when you read them a storybook, and they turn the pages. It is the sounds they make to sing along to your nursery rhyme. It is every crayon scribble and gaggle sound. When you put in that effort, your child instinctively responds as its brain processes the information.
These early steps are essential in helping your child learn how to read and write later in school. The babbling leads to speaking, the scribbles to writing, and the page-turning to reading. Studies prove how students who read at a higher level were read to, by their parents, in childhood and early infancy.
How can you help your children develop these skills?
The best part is that it's straightforward to help your children develop these skills. All it takes is spending time with them and doing simple activities.
Speaking: Children absorb information from the adults around them. Their brains don't know how language works. So, when you talk to them, they take in the form and shape of words. The sounds they make are them trying to copy your tone and rhythm.
So, spend as much time talking to your children as possible. Don't try to copy their baby talk or make sounds back at them. Instead, speak normally and in short sentences. Ask them questions and pretend you're having a regular conversation with them. This will help your child learn how to speak quicker.
Reading Storybooks: Make storybook reading a daily habit. Pick books with colourful images and repeat the same ones. A mistake a lot of parents make today is reading from their kindle or phone. By doing that, you are robbing your child of the opportunity to participate in the activity.
You don't want to distract them with a bright screen. You want to have that bonding moment where you move your child's finger under the line. Or when they turn the page while you're in the middle of a sentence. It is the activity that matters. And the interaction that will teach them how to read.
Singing Nursery Rhymes: Remember, children pick up the language through tone and rhythm. The reason nursery rhymes work is the same reason a catchy song sticks in your head
When you sing your child a nursery rhyme their undivided attention is on you. Take classics like Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. At some point, they'll start copying your hand movements. Then they'll try to copy the words.
Drawing and Coloring: Handling writing mediums is the first step to learning how to write. Those early crayon squiggles might not look like much, but that is your child learning how to hold the crayon. It helps them adjust to the weight of the tools and develops hand control and dexterity.
Toys and games: There are a lot of games you can play with your children. But some toys are more useful than others. One toy you should get your child is building blocks. They come in all sizes and colours. And you can play together to build houses, trains, and all sorts of things.
Studies into the subject show that children who grow up playing with blocks are more likely to pursue careers in fields like engineering. That is because the act of building things and joining parts develops key parts of their brains.
There are a lot of steps you can take to improve your child's ability. All it takes is a little attention. It can be easy to overlook those early steps, however, their importance cannot be overemphasised!
Photo credit: Picsea on Unsplash
Mervi Palander
Founder GraphoGame
Skills Needed for Children Literacy Development
Some children learn how to read, write, communicate, and socialise quickly while others struggle, and that's okay. Early literacy development varies from child to child, so all children will progress at different rates.
Different skills are needed for children's literacy competence. Take a look at some of the essential literacy skills that children need to develop to succeed in their learning journey.
Phonemic Awareness
The English alphabetic writing system is made up of 26 letters. However, there are almost two times more sound units (phonemes) for these letters. The letters in words represent different sounds that dictate how each word should be pronounced. Without this awareness, children can't read and pronounce new words correctly.
Phonemes aren't inherently obvious, so they must be taught. There are many different approaches to impart phonemic awareness skills in children. These include the following:
Phoneme segmentation – involves asking children to break out a word into separate sounds. For example, "What are all the sounds you hear in bat? /b/ /a/ /t/
Phoneme isolation – involves asking learners to isolate phonemes. For example, "What is the last sound in book?" /k/
Phoneme blending – involves asking students to use different sounds to form a word. For example, [b-e-e-f] for beef.
Phoneme identity – involves asking readers to identify common sounds in a set of words. For example, "Reveal the common sound in bug, bat, and ball."
Even though phonemic awareness is an auditory skill, it helps kids read and articulate print with precision.
Our GraphoGame literacy learning app for children was designed specifically to facilitate children phonemic awareness at home or school. In other words, GraphoGame helps children to connect written language segments with the corresponding speech sounds.
Awareness of Print
Print is ubiquitous. It can be seen in alphabet books and storybooks, on signs and billboards, and in magazines, and newspapers. With that said, many children are likely to come across it before starting school.
Children's level of print awareness is a very strong predictor of their future reading achievement. Children with an awareness of print understand that written communication is related to oral communication. They see that, like verbal communication, printed language carries meaning. Children who lack print awareness may not become effective readers.
Imagine relying on a few words to communicate an idea. Whether spoken or written, your communication won't be engaging or persuasive.
Children need to build a strong vocabulary for school, work readiness, and general life skills. They need to constantly learn new words so they can have a rich vocabulary that will help them communicate better and make a positive impression on others.
Kids learn the first words from their parents and other older household members. Hence, families play an important role in children's performance of vocabulary.
Many children start to speak before they go to school but very few can spell the words that they use. Spelling skills help children differentiate words that are pronounced the same way but are written differently.
Children can be taught how to spell correctly in a variety of ways, including:
Encouraging reading – for example, reading storybooks word by word to teach children how to read and spell words.
Calling out a word and spelling it out loud – for example, teaching your child how to spell words with 'Lily Pad Letters'.
Playing games to practice spelling – for example, playing 'scrambled spelling' using alphabet blocks.
Spelling skills are essential for mastering the art of written communication.
The primary use of words is to convey meaning. Words mean nothing if children can't understand how and why they've been used. Comprehension skills are essential to ensure children understand what they read.
A variety of strategies can be deployed to help children improve their reading or text comprehension skills. These include the following:
Summarising text – asking children to recap the main points.
Generating questions – learners are asked to raise any questions they may have about what they've just read.
Answering questions – learners are asked to answer questions regarding the text they've just read.
Monitoring comprehension – identifying what learners understand and what they don't understand. For example, using a finger to follow along and point out words that the reader doesn't seem to understand.
Children that have good comprehension skills tend to excel in school and beyond.
Families and educators should team up to improve children's literacy development
When it comes to early literacy development, the main takeaway is that all children are different. Parents should work together with educators to help every child acquire the skills they need to achieve literacy success.
Image credit: Jerry Wang on Unsplash
Jesper Ryynänen,
Co-founder & Head of Partnerships at GraphoGame
Children Learn Through Play: Let Them Play and Learn
During the Coronavirus pandemic and consequent lockdown, a lot of questions have been brought up about education. As children can no longer attend traditional schools, parents are having to figure out how they will manage their children's education. While it is certainly a challenge, especially insofar as it requires juggling school with work with household maintenance in a way like never before, it's also a unique opportunity to make individualized choices for what will best suit your children, allowing you to move past the typical understanding of learning as something that takes place through books, spreadsheets, and lectures.
Because, in reality, learning is so much more than that. In fact, one of the best ways to help your children learn is just to give them the space and freedom to engage in unstructured play on their own terms. This article explains why play is so important to learning and how you can leverage it to help your children.
Why Play Is So Important
If your kid would rather build structures out of Legos or play pretend instead of doing worksheets or sitting through Zoom lessons all day, don't worry, they're not being lazy or brainless. In fact, just the opposite. Because, especially for young children, education is about so much more than just learning facts and figures.
Many experts consider play absolutely key to learning. In fact, the United Nations has even recognized it as a human right for all children. That's because play gives children a way to make sense of the world, letting them use their innate curiosity for the better. It encourages creativity and problem solving and lets kids use their imaginations.
Beyond that, play is also critical for setting the stage for further learning and brain development. It develops children's emerging skills, motivates them, and increases their chances of enjoying the process of learning throughout their lives. According to the Canadian Council on Learning, "Play nourishes every aspect of children's development – it forms the foundation of intellectual, social, physical, and emotional skills necessary for success in school and in life."
Here's a short list of just some of the things that play helps children learn:
Social and emotional skills
Sharing, taking turns, and cooperating
Not bad for something that costs no money and requires no coercion to get your kids to do, huh?
What is Play?
But just because play is natural and comes to children easily doesn't mean that we're encouraging you to go completely hands-off in their education. On the contrary, the more deliberate your children's playtime, the more they will get out of it. As a parent, it's up to you to make sure that your kids are being set up to optimally learn through play.
However, it's important to know that play should be spontaneous and voluntary. There shouldn't be any extrinsic goal, and the child should be engaged and enjoying themselves, able to stop whenever they want.
So what's your role in all of this?
Don't feel pressured to over-schedule your child's time with books and workbooks and online learning. Instead, give them the unstructured free time to try new things, invent, create, and explore. Create an environment that encourages and facilitates play. Give your child access to blocks, art supplies, games, and costumes and props for their make-believe.
The beautiful thing is that children can and should figure it out for themselves. So you don't need to feel guilty if you can't be on top of your child every second, micromanaging their time in the name of education. It's okay if you need to focus for a bit on your work or chores or self-care. Your kid won't lose anything for having more free play time. In fact, they'll probably get even more out of it.
Photo source: https://unsplash.com/photos/ecRuhwPIW7c
Ways to Spur and Motivate Kids to Learn at Home
There are so many challenges that have come with the global Coronavirus lockdown, and we're all struggling to make things work in this new, uncharted territory. But one thing that is for certain is that parents are being especially stretched, having to balance working from home and doing their own usual household tasks with the new challenge of helping their kids continue learning in the absence of traditional classroom education.
It's become clear to many that engaging, motivating, and focusing a child on schoolwork is no easy feat. Here are some tips and ideas you can try out to help inspire your kids to learn while stuck at home.
Make it Fun
One way you can motivate your kids to learn at home is to make learning fun. After all, kids are driven by nothing if not a good time. Of course it will be difficult to encourage your kid to make it through a dreary math worksheet, but you'll have a much easier time getting them to learn the same exact material if the method of delivery is more engaging.
We highly recommend looking into online learning for kids, which is specifically designed to be engaging for the appropriate age level. For example, there are a myriad of educational websites full of learning games in every subject from English to science to math and more. You might even get lucky and find educational games that your child loves so much that they'd rather do them than play a video game or watch a YouTube video.
Let Them Lead
Another tip to get your kids learning during lockdown is to let them take the lead in the process. In fact, that is a unique advantage of this time. With more freedom, your child can have the opportunity to learn about and explore the topics that are of special interest to them. After all, kids are naturally curious creatures and have an innate drive to learn about new things. Chances are, your child is teeming with questions and topics they want to learn more about.
So take this as an opportunity to get to know your child's interests and encourage and facilitate their exploration of them. Is your kid an astronomy lover? Get them a children's telescope. Do they love experimenting with mixing together different liquids from around the house? Consider finding them some chemistry experiments to do. Are they super into the history of ancient Egypt? There are sure to be some kid-friendly books and documentaries on the subject you can give them.
Use Rewards
As a parent, you probably already know the power of rewards in disciplining and raising children. From praising your children when they use the potty for the first time to letting your teenager borrow your car after a week of good behaviour, rewards are one of the most powerful tools in the parenting box. And that tool is equally effective when it comes to motivating your child to learn.
Depending on your child's age, personality, and interests, identify some appropriate rewards that are minor enough to be affordable and easy to give but special enough to make a difference. That might be a sticker, a healthy treat, twenty minutes of video game time, or something else - it's up to you.
The important part is tying that reward to the achievement of certain learning goals. For example, you might give your child a reward if they manage to finish a certain number of pages in a book by the end of the day. The great thing about this method is that it's so flexible and can be adjusted to fit your family's particular needs.
If you can use these tips, you'll tap into your child's natural tendencies, interests, and desires to get them learning enthusiastically - and hopefully give you a spare moment to yourself.
Good luck and stay healthy!
Photo by Santi Vedrí on Unsplash
Elizabeth Agbor Eta
GraphoGame as an Example of Social Impact of Research
What is social impact of research?
Research plays an important role when it comes to solving complex social problems, producing knowledge for policymaking, and enhancing innovation. Social impact of research refers to the outcomes and benefits of research that are used outside the academic institutions. Broadly speaking, social impact of research includes the interactions, practices and tools that researchers have developed over time with other societal actors.
For example, in the field of education, researchers help policymakers, teachers, schools, pupils and their parents by producing relevant information that can be used in schools and homes. At its best, one can describe social impact of research as a dialogical relationship between the various actors in society. GraphoGame is an example of such dialogue and a 'carrier' of social impact. Its development shows how the results of research expand from local settings to a global scale.
Solving local and global literacy problems with GraphoGame
The research behind GraphoGame started in the 1980s in Jyväskylä, Finland, where researchers at the University of Jyväskylä studied learning difficulties and collaborated closely with schools and children with learning difficulties. Over time, the combination of academic and practical work led to the development of learning materials, diagnostic methods, and training tools to be used by professionals and pupils in schools.
A turning point was the discovery of the letter-sound connection as a precursor of dyslexia. It was one of the findings of a longitudinal study and it helped researchers produce new understanding of dyslexia and reading processes. The finding brought together the explanation, prediction and prevention of dyslexia, which was crystallised in the development of GraphoGame. It soon became a motivating yet individual tool for children who were learning how to read.
In Finland, GraphoGame was distributed broadly, but researchers soon realised its potential in other languages. In collaboration with top universities around, GraphoGame has been researched in the following languages: UK English (University of Cambridge Centre for Neuroscience in Education), French (Aix-Marseille University), Dutch (University of Groningen), Portuguese (Politecnico do Porto), Spanish (Pontifical Catholic University of Chile), Chinese Pinyin (Beijing Normal University), Chinese Zhuyin (Academia Sinica), Norwegian (University of Stavanger), Swedish (Lund University), Cinyanja (University of Zambia), U.S English (Yale/Haskins laboretorie).
In any new language, GraphoGame is studied and developed with local researchers. This is paramount since each language and school system is unique. What started as a quest for understanding reading processes and dyslexia in the Finnish context, evolved into a global effort to tackle illiteracy.
Expanding social impact of research with GraphoGame
The example of GraphoGame shows how the different dimensions of social impact come together. First, it was the research findings that helped researchers to understand dyslexia. Second, to make use of that understanding led to the development of a training tool for children. Finally, global collaboration made the dissemination possible, expanding the use of GraphoGame.
It's easy to see that today's social problems, such as learning difficulties are complex and link many areas of life together. Learning difficulties, such as dyslexia, are connected to school systems, access to learning materials and individual support. Overcoming difficulties in learning plays an important role in the individual's life as schools prepare them for working life. Being able to read and write is a basic need, a necessity for future success. In the end, problems related to illiteracy become questions of inclusion, democracy and empowerment. The solutions may require time to materialise but with the help of research, it is easier to understand the phenomena behind the problems and tackle them early on.
Check out GraphoGame today for more information on how this evidence-based literacy game is helping kindergarten and primary school children around the world to learn to read and spell in an engaging, simple and fun way.
Photo Source: https://unsplash.com/photos/vbxyFxlgpjM
Terhi Esko (M.Soc.Sci) is a researcher focusing on science, technology and innovation studies. Terhi Esko studied the development of GraphoGame in her doctoral dissertation. Currently she works at Tampere University studying the emergence of health tech and life science firms in Finland. Her doctoral dissertation 'Societal Problem Solving and University Research. Science-Society Interaction and Social Impact in the Educational and Social Sciences' will be publicly examined on May 15 2020 at the University of Helsinki at 13 o'clock (live streaming at http://video.helsinki.fi/unitube/live-stream.html?room=l6)
Different Approaches to Teaching Literacy: Is There a Right Way?
There are approximately 650 million children throughout the world who are primary school-age, and 250 million of them are unable to read or write.
Over the years, experts have debated on the best way to teach literacy that will raise achievement levels and give children the tools and confidence needed to cope and be successful in school and beyond.
Read on for more information about some of the different approaches to teaching literacy. You'll learn about the advantages and disadvantages of these methods so you can choose one that works best for you and the kids you're teaching.
Alphabetic Method
For years, one of the most popular teaching literacy strategies was the Alphabetic Method. In fact, it's been around since ancient Greek and Roman times.
This approach to literacy education involves teaching children each letter of the alphabet in order (both its name and its pronunciation). Using this method, children also learn to write each letter at the same time.
At the same time that they're learning each letter, children also learn simple vowel and consonant combinations. For example, m + a = ma. From two-letter syllables, they go on to learn longer syllables and then, eventually, full words and sentences.
Using the Alphabetic Method, reading starts off feeling very mechanical. It can take longer for children who learn in this way to become expressive readers. It can also take longer for them to start to truly comprehend what they're reading.
Syllabic Method
Another traditional approach is the Syllabic Method. This involves teaching children the vowels (A, E, I, O, and U) first. From here, they learn the consonants, beginning with those that are easiest for them to pronounce. This is sometimes referred to as building the syllabic bridge.
After learning the consonants, children will blend vowels and consonants to create syllables (ma, me, mi, mo, mu, etc.). Once they've mastered this, they'll move on to learning more complex syllables, then words, phrases, and, eventually, sentences.
As with the Alphabetic Method, when teaching children using the Syllabic Method, reading can start out sounding very methodical. It can take quite a while before children start to read more expressively and comprehend what they're reading.
Phonetic Method
The Phonetic Method is one of the most popular and effective methods of teaching literacy. It's encouraged more often than other approaches.
In this style of teaching, children first learn each vowel based on their sounds. Teachers will often use figures and images that start with each letter to help children remember them, and children also learn to write vowels at the same time.
After teaching vowels, instructors will teach consonants with their sounds, using images and objects for better retention. After this, children go on to learn how to blend the sounds of consonants with the sounds of the five vowels to form simple syllables.
Once children have learned simple syllables, they should be able to learn simple words and phrases. After this, more complex concepts are taught, including inverse syllables, mixed and complex syllables, diphthongs, and triphthongs. They can then combine all of these into more complicated words and phrases.
The Phonetic Approach, which is used in many interactive literacy games, does a great job of fostering confidence. GraphoGame uses an enhanced phonetic approach called Synthetic Phonics. GraphoGame's English version is based on research on reading by "rhyme analogy", carried out in the 1980s and 1990s by Professor Usha Goswami. The rhyme analogy research highlighted the importance of oral awareness of linguistic "onset-rime" units in reading development. To segment a word into onset-rime units, divide at the vowel ("s-ing", "st-ing", "spr-ing"). Developed at the Centre for Neuroscience in Education, University of Cambridge, the English GraphoGame focuses on rime patterns, teaching individual letter-sound correspondences within rhyming families of words.
Get Help Teaching Literacy Today
As you can see, there are lots of different ways that you can go about teaching literacy to children. Do you need help figuring out an approach that works well for your child (or the children you teach)? If so, consider giving GraphoGame a try today.
GraphoGame is a fun and evidence-based children's literacy app. It uses Finnish methods of literacy teaching to help young children gain the skills they need to establish a solid foundation and become competent readers. It also tracks children's progress and alerts parents or teachers so they can become aware of and work to correct potential issues right away.
Check out GraphoGame today to see how it works for your children!
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The Importance of Early Grade Literacy and Why We MUST INVEST in It
Throughout the world, more than 250 million children are illiterate or struggling to read. Even though a lot of these children are in school, they're having a hard time keeping up and are failing to acquire basic literacy skills.
The World Bank calls this issue "learning poverty," and UNESCO has referred to it as a "global learning crisis." UNESCO also reports that it's costing hundreds of billions of pounds per year.
By placing a greater emphasis on early grade literacy, we can work to solve this crisis and give more children the tools they need to succeed. Read on to learn more about the importance of early grade literacy and why it's essential that we invest in it.
What Caused the Global Learning Crisis?
The global learning crisis is a multifaceted problem. There are many reasons why kids throughout the world are struggling to read and write, but lack of resources and access to learning opportunities are some of the contributors.
Educational resources are unevenly distributed around the world. In some countries, children enjoy full access to quality education and resources that support learning. In others, access to learning resources and educational opportunities is limited. In the latter, many children lack access to quality books and reading materials not only at home but also in school. This is especially true for the approximately one-third of children who live in poverty worldwide.
How Can Investing in Early Grade Literacy Help?
The earlier kids start working on their reading skills, the better off they'll be. Investments in early grade literacy provide numerous benefits to children, parents, and educators all over the world. The following are some of the most noteworthy benefits:
Reduced Spending: According to the World Bank, children's reading programs are very cost-effective, especially in developing nations. When they're implemented correctly, they can also lead to significant reductions in spending.
Optimal Learning Times: When children are young, their brains are primed for optimal literacy. It's much easier to teach reading and language skills among young children than it is to teach them when they get older.
Better Outcomes: Focusing on early grade literacy leads to better learning outcomes, too. When children have an opportunity to learn to read early on, they also tend to perform better as older students. They have better general knowledge, better attention spans, and improved concentrations.
Ways to Invest in Early Grade Literacy
Investments in early grade literacy are crucial to children's long-term success. Where should we focus our attention and funding, though? Listed below are some of the greatest investments we can and should be making:
Early Childhood Education Programs: Investment in early childhood programs can lead to much better literacy outcomes. It helps to establish a strong foundation and sets children up for success later.
Evidence-Based Literacy Games: The use of evidence-based literacy games can make learning more fun for young children. When they have a chance to learn in an interactive way, they're more likely to retain information and develop the literacy skills they need most.
Start Investing Today
As you can see, early grade literacy is too important to ignore. One of the best investments that we can make in improving children's literacy, which has the potential to yield significant returns, is the implementation of evidence-based learning games like GraphoGame.
GraphoGame is an app that uses Finnish methods of literacy teaching. It allows kids to play at home or at school while having their progress tracked so parents and teachers can become aware of potential problems or bottlenecks.
If your child struggles with reading or if you just want to give them a leg up, GraphoGame makes a great addition to their learning efforts. Check it out today!
Picture source: https://unsplash.com/photos/cwGk-u9PHOo
Coronavirus and School Closures: How Edtech Solutions Can Help Keep Primary School Children Learning and Engaged
Now that schools are closed and will probably remain so for some time due to the COVID-19 pandemic, parents are scrambling to figure out how to keep their kids learning. Homeschooling and online studies can be daunting, but educational technology—also known as edtech—can help alleviate the stress for both parents and kids.
Aren't schools already providing online solutions? Yes, but . . .
As "essential businesses," schools are continuing to provide their students access to educational materials. They've done this by cobbling together online resources and perhaps Zoom teaching calls. However, the quality and quantity of online resources vary greatly not only from school to school but from grade to grade. And many of those resources require significant parental guidance, which non-educator parents who just started working from home may be hard-pressed to provide.
Another issue with the online resources schools are offering is that they might not capture students' attention. Boredom can be a particular problem for primary school children who haven't built up much stamina to pay attention to lessons.
Also, schools may be focused on delivering the last 20-30% of their curriculum when a more appropriate goal might be to keep kids engaged and learning. After all, the COVID-19 crisis is already stressful enough for families.
How long will schools be closed?
Since schools have to follow the government's social distancing mandates, the earliest schools will resume in-person classes is May. It's an open question, though, whether schools will reopen at all for the 2019-2020 school year. If schools do reopen, parents have to keep their kids learning in the meantime. And it would be a good idea to line up learning resources for planned school holidays, anyway.
How can edtech solutions help keep kids learning?
Unless their kids' schools are providing a dazzling array of engaging, user-friendly online options, parents will want to seek out other resources. Of course, they can, and should, use offline resources like books, art materials, and puzzles. But educational technology can be invaluable in helping students learn at home effectively. Here are some reasons why:
First of all, edtech can help personalise the learning experience and make it more interactive than traditional teaching, where the "sage on the stage" delivers content. Interactivity breeds engagement and fosters curiosity. Divya Gokulnath, the cofounder of edtech Byju's, believes it's crucial to bring back the "childlike curiosity" in children. "Curiosity is one of the most underrated attributes today, yet one of the most important," she asserts. She adds that adults should pledge ". . . to never curb curiosity and give children a new kind of freedom—the freedom to learn without fear."
Second, edtech helps level the playing field. Explains Shobhit Bhatnager, CEO and cofounder of the edtech Gradeup, access and affordability of quality education is limited by socioeconomic status and geographical boundaries. He adds, "Edtech has emerged as one of the most viable alternatives for democratised access to affordable and quality education."
Finally, quality edtech resources can address the issue of teaching to a set curriculum rather than to a student. According to Bhatnager, edtech "has the potential to shift from being curriculum-centric to becoming student-centric" primarily by enhancing engagement.
A quality edtech offering: GraphoGame
One quality edtech offering is GraphoGame. This academically researched learning app, game, and methodology for teaching kindergarten and primary school children early grade literacy is available in several languages, including English and Chinese. GraphoGame combines Finnish educational and special-needs expertise with cutting-edge neuroscience research.
Fortunately for parents forced into homeschooling by school closures, GraphoGame is, according to the testimonial of a UK primary school teacher, "not reliant on adult support." Other users emphasise how much kids enjoy the game. A kindergarten teacher in France enthuses, "GraphoGame is so helpful for my students; most of them start to read just by playing with this app." For more information, please read more here.
Agreement signed to commercialize Norwegian GraphoGame
The partnership was signed in Helsinki between Prof. Per Henning Uppstad (Reading Centre), Matyas Kolsofszki (Validé), Mervi Palander (Grapho Group) and Jesper Ryynänen (Grapho Group)
We are proud to announce that we have entered into an agreement with Validé and the Norwegian Reading Centre at the University of Stavanger to further develop and commercialize the Norwegian version of GraphoGame. GraphoGame Norsk, as it is called on application stores (Apple App Store & Google Play Store), was the result of a collaboration between the University of Jyväskylä and University of Stavanger for developing an adaptive digital reading intervention for Norwegian children.
 "What separates GraphoGame from many other learning games is that it is "adaptive", that is, the game adjusts the difficulty based on how the player solves the tasks. In this way, the child will constantly have new challenges"
- Professor Per Henning Uppstad, Reading Centre (Lesensenteret)
Through a number of levels, the child progresses from letters & letter-sound, to short words and eventually longer words.
GraphoGame Norsk was part of the "On Track" -research project funded by the Norwegian Research Council (FINNUT) aiming to promote research and innovation in education between 2014 and 2018. 1200 children from 17 Norwegian schools participated in the study. After the study GraphoGame Norsk was released as a free app within Norway on Google Play Store and Apple App Store.
As part of the agreement the Reading Centre shall continue research in the field of serious gaming in literacy, while the commercialization arm of University of Stavanger, Validé will work with the GraphoGame company to establish a local presence in Norway to maximise the educational value of the application to Norwegian students, teachers and parents.
GraphoGame Norsk has only been available inside Norwegian app stores. Soon it will be globally available.
www.lesesenteret.uis.no
www.valide.no
GraphoGame Presenting at BETT Show 2019 in London
The first month of the new year is coming to a close, which means one of the first and foremost events in the annual education technology calendar is upon us: Bett Show is kicking off tomorrow at ExCeL exhibition centre in East London!
GraphoGame Christmas greeting
Merry Christmas & Happy New Year
from GraphoGame!
Last day at the office in 2018!
What did we get up to in 2018?
Partnership: GraphoGame & Microsoft Education
English GraphoGame now available
for Windows 10 on Microsoft Education Store.
GraphoGame blog launched!
We are proud to announce that our blog has officially launched!
The 'GraphoBlog' (as we are now calling it) will be one of the major channels of communication with our users, stakeholders and peers in the field of early grade literacy and dyslexia. Our vision is that this space will become a vibrant space for thoughtful discussion and debate around the hot topics surrounding education technology, gameified learning and early literacy research.
What will we be posting about, you might ask?

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Yup, we finally made up our minds and tooth ache.'s Skin 7″ will be out on August 17th. These two songs are going to be on ever summer mix imaginable, mark our works. Keep an eye out for pre-order info and tour dates!
Can't wait for it? Download Skin from our Soundcloud page while you can!


Mobile learning is set to make a splash within corporate training. Here's an infographic the team at Vantage Path put together that collects some of the most interesting facts we've stumbled across over the last few months.
Learn why text messaging is the most effective way to reach teens and how colleges can use mobile to drive enrollment from prospective students.


There are numerous ways to fund your next real estate investment. One method that is used by investors to help them defer taxes on real estate is a 1031 exchange. Essentially, you are taking the equity of one property and exchanging into a new property or properties.
While you should consult your tax professional regarding the specifics of your investing situation, knowing how a 1031 exchange works can help you make the right investment decision.
One of the most important aspects to properly conducting a 1031 exchange is centered on time. After you've sold a property you have approximately 45 days to identify replacement properties. Next, you have 180 days after the close of escrow to complete the acquisition of the replacement real estate asset. Attorney David Greenberger, Esq. from my1031place recommends to make a 1031 exchange successful you should be looking for a new investment before your property sells. "Since you only have 45 days to find something and 180 days to close on it, time is essential," David further explains.
The IRS stipulates that the replacement properties must be "like kind;" this means you can sell any real estate asset and exchange it for any other real estate asset. The investment you make on the new properties need to be equal or greater to take advantage of the full tax deferral.
While each 1031 exchange is unique, the IRS does have several rules regarding how it works. You can purchase a maximum of three replacement properties without regard to fair market value or follow what is referred to as the 200% rule. If you purchase more than three properties, the total aggregate value of all replacement properties cannot exceed 200% of the relinquished property value.
Tax: As mentioned previously, most investors look toward the 1031 exchange for a means to defer taxes paid on real estate.
Leverage: If the property you had originally purchased is paid for free and clear, you could use the capital to reinvest with leverage on a larger real estate opportunity.
Diversification: Instead of putting all your eggs in one basket you can take the proceeds from your real estate sale and invest it into several residential real estate opportunities. By investing in different cities, you can add an extra layer of diversification to your portfolio as each market has its own local economic conditions.
If you are planning to sell your real estate asset soon, a 1031 exchange could be the right move for you. Using this strategy means you could defer taxes, provide diversification to your portfolio, and continue to build wealth with real estate.
If you'd like to learn more about how you can create a 1031 exchange strategy, schedule a consultation with us.


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Our patients stories
UCB Spain wins award for epilepsy initiative
Jesus Sobrino, UCB Iberia
UCB has won a prestigious award for an innovative project designed to raise awareness of epilepsy in Spain.
The prize was presented at the 2016 EFPIA Health Collaboration Summit in Brussels on 9 November. The event was hosted by the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA).
Willy Cnops and Xavier Hormaechea receiving the award in Brussels on behalf of UCB
The awards, established by EFPIA and the Patient Think Tank in 2015, aim to share best practice in multi-stakeholder collaborations that benefit patients and healthcare systems.
UCB was recognised for the project 'To Live with Epilepsy' (Vivir con epilepsia), an innovative initiative that raises awareness of the disease and tackles social stigma in Spain. Around 400,000 people in Spain are directly affected by epilepsy but knowledge and understanding of the condition remain low.
The project features a specially designed website focused on epilepsy to enhance public knowledge about it and share patients' experiences. By creating a digital community on epilepsy we helped to bring the patient voice to the centre of epilepsy conversations.
The site has a blog which is a useful way to build a strong and loyal community of patients and health professionals. The initiative also includes a Facebook page to reach out to patients living with epilepsy, and a Twitter channel for reaching health professionals.
The project helped to normalize the disease among the public and to reduce stigma and social exclusion. The website received more than 66,000 visits from 54,000 unique users.
This is not the first time 'To Live with Epilepsy' has been recognised as an innovative initiative. It was named 'Best Social Health Awareness Campaign' by Publifestival in 2015 and won the Solidarity Category prize at the Diario Médico Best Ideas Awards in Spain. We are delighted to add this European award to the project's growing list of accolades.
We would like to thank all the partners who worked with us on this successful project and look forward to playing an active role in improving the lives of people with epilepsy in Spain and around the world.
Tags: Epilepsy Spain innovation collaboration
Categories: Patients


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January 4, 2022 newspaper2020
COVID LATEST: PM Says England Has A Chance To 'Ride Out' The Omicron Wave
The UK will 'ride out' the omicron variant Boris Johnson has said in his first press conference of the new year
Unlike this time last year when the Prime Minister asked the public to stay at home for a third time, today, Tuesday January 4, he has said England will be sticking to the 'plan B' measures put in place before Christmas.
Just as positive COVID cases hit a new record high, 218,724, speaking from Downing Street, the PM said the battle against COVID is not over, but is different from previous waves.
He said: "Anyone who thinks our battle with COVID is over is profoundly wrong. This is a moment for the upmost caution but our position today differs from previous waves in two crucial respects.
"First we now know Omicron is milder than previous variants – so while hospital admissions are rising quickly, with over 15,000 patients in hospital with covid alone, this is not yet, thankfully, translating into the same numbers for people needing intensive care we saw in previous waves.
"Second, thanks the incredible national effort to get Britain boosted we now have a substantial level of protection higher than any of our European neighbours with over 34 million boosters administered."
Due to this Johnson has said we now 'have a chance to ride out this omicron wave without shutting down the country' and implementing a fourth lockdown.
"And do together with the 'plan B' measures introduced before Christmas we have a chance to ride out this omicron wave without shutting down the country once again," he said.
"We can keep our schools and our businesses open and find a way to live with this virus. But the weeks ahead are going to be challenging both here in the UK and across the world."
The PM went on to say with continuing with 'plan B' measures there will be 'no escaping' disruptions to services due to absences – but compared this a as a lesser of two evils when considering implementing a lockdown on the country and the impact it could have.
"There's no escaping the fact some services will be disrupted by staff absences but we've been working through Christmas to prepare for this wherever possible and if we all play our part in containing the spread of this virus the disruptions we face can be far less severe than a national lockdown and all the devastation that brings for the livelihoods and life chances of our children," the PM continued.
"So, the government is acting to protect critical national services, to keep supply chains open and fortify our NHS to withstand the pressures ahead."
He went on to say the government has identified 100,000 critical workers from food supply to transport and border force and they will be asked to take a lateral flow test every day from January 10.
Johnson finished his statement by saying 'as the NHS moves to a war footing' he will be recommending to cabinet tomorrow that the country continues with 'Plan B' measures as well as encouraging those who have not gone for their booster vaccination yet to do so.
He backed up the need for a booster, and general COVID vaccination, by explaining 90 percent of those in intensive care due to the virus have not had their booster – and 60 percent have not been vaccinated at all.
However, when the PM was asked if it is 'unlikely or highly unlikely' more restrictions will be imposed in England he said: "We will monitor everything very closely – we clearly can't rule anything out".
He added the government are trying to take 'a balanced approach' and says people 'are doing their absolute best' to help the effort.
"If you ask me to guess, I would say we have a good chance of getting through the Omicron wave without the need for further restrictions – and without the need, certainly, for another lockdown," the PM said.
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Ace Attorney 7: Release Date, Rumours and Development. Everything We Know So far
Ace Attorney 7: Release Date, Rumours, and Development. Everything We Know So far
Last year, we received a lot of information on Capcom's plans. After being targeted in a ransomware attack, we were able to obtain some detailed information about Monster Hunter Rise and Resident Evil Village. There were also many Ace Attorney revelations.
We were initially advised that there would be a Great Ace Attorney collection in the West. This was officially announced last week. However, we received news of a sequel trilogy, including Apollo Justice, Dual Destinies, and Spirit of Justice.
What's more? The Ace Attorney 7 game is now available. This game is known as Ace Attorney 7. Here's what we know so far.
A Capcom countdown webpage teases some announcements for next week. While we believe it more likely that it will be Street Fighter6 or the rumored Resident Evil 4 Reboot, it could also be Ace Attorney. Although it's unlikely, one can always hope…
According to a leaky roadmap (translated here), Ace Attorney 7 entered production in 2019. The main output will begin in 2020 and 2021. We don't know much more at the moment.
We don't know much about what this will look like. It's safe to assume that this entry will continue the courtroom-based gameplay and investigative elements seen in previous entries. Although this may continue the stories of Athena Cykes and Apollo Justice, it remains speculative.
F-Zero: Rumours, Leaks, and All We Know About the Release Date of F-Zero's Switch
CHINESE PLAYERS REVIEW BOMING TOTAL WAR: WARHAMMER 3, OVER IT PRE-LAUNCHMARKETING STRATEGY


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The Erma Bombeck | Anna Lefler Humorist-in-Residence Program
A Hotel Room Along the Dayton Riviera
"I haven't slept in 12 years," one beleaguered writer started her application.
And this realization from another hopeful writer, "You had me at room service."
The University of Dayton's Erma Bombeck Writers' Workshop is once again offering two emerging humor writers the opportunity to compete for an all-expenses-paid trip to Dayton, Ohio, where the winners will be "robed" in plush, custom-embroidered bathrobes and given free registration to the April 2-4, 2020, workshop.
As part of the biennial A Hotel Room of One's Own: The Erma Bombeck | Anna Lefler Humorist-in-Residence Program, the winners will spend two more blissful weeks at the University of Dayton Marriott, the workshop's official hotel and an in-kind sponsor.
Yes, a hotel with a "Do Not Disturb" sign that can be draped over the door knob. Free room service. An omelet bar. A housekeeping staff. A TV remote of one's own. The sun rising over the Great Miami River (aka, the Dayton Riviera). It's the ultimate gift for any writer — the luxury of time to write.
Applications will be accepted Sept. 3-24, with Pulitzer Prize-winning humorist Dave Barry and best-selling novelist Adriana Trigiani serving as finalist judges.
"This is an opportunity for funny writers to deep dive into their comedic voices and create without limitations. I would be thrilled for this program to provide the catalyst for emerging comedy writers to break through with their art," says Anna Lefler, a Los Angeles novelist and comedy writer who conceived and funded the program.
It already has done just that for the winners of the inaugural 2018 competition.
"Not only did the residency allow me to binge on Netflix uninterrupted by pesky family members, it allowed me the time, space and solitude to see how the book I was working on was actually going to work. Lucky Like That, a collection of funny personal essays, is now completed and being shopped around by my agent.
"Who knew that 17 of the best days of my career would be spent on a little window seat in a corner room of the Dayton Marriott?" asked Samantha Schoech, a writer, copywriter and editor from San Francisco.
Brooklyn-based comedian Karen Chee has traded "hotel life" for a TV studio. She's now part of an Emmy-nominated group of comedy writers on Late Night With Seth Meyers. "It's such a fun and delightful place to work. Everyone is really kind and goofy," she said.
"The uninterrupted time in Dayton absolutely helped me focus on my career. What a gift to have time dedicated fully to my work, rather than worrying about chores and bills and everything else that goes with life," said Chee, whose writing credits include the 2019 Gold Globe Awards and the upcoming Reductress pilot on Comedy Central.
She's also a regular contributor to The New Yorker and has been published in The New York Times, The Washington Post, McSweeneys and others national outlets. In a recent humorous segment, "What Does Karen Know?" Meyers interviewed the millennial writer about pop culture.
The program opens Tuesday, Sept. 3, with all online applications due by midnight (EST) on Tuesday, Sept. 24. Winners will be announced Nov. 12. It's open to all aspiring humor writers regardless of gender or comedic point of view. Writers working on novels, narrative non-fiction, plays, essays, sitcom scripts and other humor writing are encouraged to apply, with special consideration given to emerging writers. The application fee is $25. Entries will be blind-judged by preliminary and finalist judges, all established writers.
As part of the residencies, the winners will write funny essays about their experience living and writing at the Dayton Marriott for the workshop's blog, meet with University of Dayton classes to discuss the writing journey, and tweet out amusing observations from the hotel using such hashtags as #HotelLOL, #RoomServiceWriter and #LaughInn.
A self-described "lifelong fangirl and devotee of Erma Bombeck," Lefler says she was inspired to start the program because, much like the wildly popular biennial workshop, it has the potential to transform a writer's life.
"The chance to step away from your everyday responsibilities to concentrate on your humor writing AND unlimited tiny soaps? The comedy practically writes itself," says Lefler, author of the funny books, Preschooled and The Chicktionary, and a three-time faculty member at the Erma Bombeck Writers' Workshop.
Founded in 2000, the University of Dayton's Erma Bombeck Writers' Workshop has been dubbed the "Woodstock of Humor." It's the only workshop in the country devoted to both humor and human interest writing and is so popular that it sells out within hours. In 2019, The Writer magazine named it the best writing conference in Ohio and "THE conference for humor writers."
Besides the writing residency, the workshop also co-sponsors an international writing competition, which will run Dec. 2, 2019-Jan. 7, 2020.
For more information about the writing residency, visit www.humorist-in-residence.com. For more information about the University of Dayton's Erma Bombeck Writers' Workshop, visit www.humorwriters.org.
Erma Bombeck Writers' Workshop
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The Erma Bombeck Anna Lefler Humorist-in-Residence Program
© 2020 HUMORIST-IN-RESIDENCE. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.


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